This doesn't have too much to do with music theory, per se. I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm teaching a class on performance next semester and I've been reading quite a lot in the field of performance studies. I came across an interesting essay yesterday that dealt with speech as performance.* The idea is that some speech acts are performative--there are some things that some people can say that (in some circumstances) will actually effect change.
Here are a few examples:
Obviously context and circumstance plays an important role. In the first situation, the ceremony generally requires a witness and generally the ceremony is a well defined event, bearing a specific time and place. If we were sitting around the dinner table with the pastor and he looks over at two people and says "I now pronounce you man and wife," they're not really married (are they?).
I've also been known to joke with my students. If the aforementioned student says "I forgot my homework," and I say to her jokingly "well, I'm giving you an F," she doesn't really get an F. Jokes and irony seem to be an interesting aspect of this performative speech. (I'll have to read more about this...) From what I've read, paralanguage (messages we send out when we communicate about how we communicate) is important here. I must be sending my student a message that I am not being serious when I make a joke like that. It's the same thing that happens when my dog bites me and I know he's playing, not trying to kill me.
If I invite you to my house for a party, you will hopefully come to my house and there will hopefully be a party. You certainly have the option of not coming to the party. If I invite you to my house for a party and there is no party but you come anyway, then what? What if my next-door neighbor invites you to my house for a party?
All of this raises interesting questions about how powerful our speech can be. Next time you say something to somebody, think about what impact your words could have. This is about more than sticks and stones...
*If you're interested, the essay was Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's "Teaching experimental critical writing," which appears in The ends of performance, a collection of essays edited by Peggy Phelan and Jill Lane and published by NYU Press (1998).
Here are a few examples:
A man stands before a man and a woman and says "I now pronounce you man and wife." Assuming the man is a religious figure or a court official, the couple before him are now legally and/or spiritually bound. If the man is not a religious or court official, the couple is not married.
A student tells me that she forgot her homework. I say, "well, then I'm giving you an F. If she had told a fellow student that she forgot her homework and that student says "well, I'm giving you an F," the student's grade is not in jeopardy.
I'm having a party and I invite you all to my house.
Obviously context and circumstance plays an important role. In the first situation, the ceremony generally requires a witness and generally the ceremony is a well defined event, bearing a specific time and place. If we were sitting around the dinner table with the pastor and he looks over at two people and says "I now pronounce you man and wife," they're not really married (are they?).
I've also been known to joke with my students. If the aforementioned student says "I forgot my homework," and I say to her jokingly "well, I'm giving you an F," she doesn't really get an F. Jokes and irony seem to be an interesting aspect of this performative speech. (I'll have to read more about this...) From what I've read, paralanguage (messages we send out when we communicate about how we communicate) is important here. I must be sending my student a message that I am not being serious when I make a joke like that. It's the same thing that happens when my dog bites me and I know he's playing, not trying to kill me.
If I invite you to my house for a party, you will hopefully come to my house and there will hopefully be a party. You certainly have the option of not coming to the party. If I invite you to my house for a party and there is no party but you come anyway, then what? What if my next-door neighbor invites you to my house for a party?
All of this raises interesting questions about how powerful our speech can be. Next time you say something to somebody, think about what impact your words could have. This is about more than sticks and stones...
*If you're interested, the essay was Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's "Teaching experimental critical writing," which appears in The ends of performance, a collection of essays edited by Peggy Phelan and Jill Lane and published by NYU Press (1998).